Truora, Announces The Acquisition of Brazilian ZapSign

Truora, the leading user authentication startup acquired in February ZapSign, the electronic signature startup with 250.000 users from Brazil. ZapSign is now part of Truora User authentication tool’s suite, which is available to integrate via WhatsApp, Web or API.

"We are very happy with this acquisition. Since COVID -19, many processes and services changed or became digitalized, and electronic signature was not the exception. Brazil comes a long way ahead of these events, ZapSign founders and generally the Brazilian tech scene have demonstrated to be at least a couple of years ahead of what is happening in Latin America,” said Maite Muñiz, –Co-Founder & CPO of Truora.

This acquisition is making Truora’s solutions one of the most complete suite of tools in the market of user authentication, giving fintech, banks, recruitment agencies, marketplaces and many other industries the facility to connect with their users during all the stages of the funnel, in a seamless way from the same provider. The official acquisition date is February 20, 2022.

“As our services are complimentary, this acquisition represents an opportunity to provide our Mexican clients with an additional service: adding electronic signature to formal contracts and electronically sign on their financial product acquisition or authentication flows, as well as other use cases we will hopefully discuss soon. Also, as a company, Truora will be able to increase scalability with all of ZapSign's know-how in self-service, and ZapSign will be able to further improve its product and expand to Latin America,” explained Muñiz.

ZapSign is a well-known electronic signature startup in Brazil. In 2020, Renato Haidamous (CEO), and Getúlio Santos (COO), founded the company, and since then, ZapSign has been expanding its base of clients in Brazil, compiling more than 8000 clients, and one million signatures every month from legal, tech, human resources and financial industries.

“Most importantly, Renato, Getulio and all the people of the ZapSign team are exceptional. In the time we have been working together, they have proven to be an ideal ally, sharing our vision and our values, as well as our mission to simplify user interactions on digital channels,” said Muñiz.

For Renato Haidamous, this acquisition is an opportunity for ZapSign to expand its operations, and make electronic signatures an everyday process in countries such as Mexico, Colombia and Chile, with companies that are investing in increasing the possibilities for their clients to access their services and products. Moreover, ZapSign provides background checks and biometric authentication methods powered by Truora, such as document validation and facial recognition.

“This acquisition will allow ZapSign to further improve its product for corporate clients, which is already happening. On the other hand, Truora has the opportunity to improve its products with all of ZapSign's know-how in self-service products, allowing a significant increase in its capillarity,” said Haidamous.

There are few countries today that do not have some form of legislation regulating electronic signatures.

As a rule, during the pandemic, countries sought to modernize the legislation regarding electronic signatures, considerably increasing their level of acceptance.

ZapSign has begun to operate in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay. All with legal validity. With the acquisition, Truora has absorbed 22 employees who will join the company and work together with another 150, in facilitating user experience for companies across digital channels in Latin America.

According to Daniel Bilbao, CEO and co-founder at Truora, the organization structure will remain the same and there will be no changes in the roles of the top officials as well.

“While conversing and getting to know the ZapSign team better, we realized that they had a vision very similar to ours, which is to simplify the interaction between users through digital channels. After a few conversations, we realized that we could help each other, and it started to make sense to strengthen our ties,” said Bilbao.

Last month, Truora announced a MX$15 million Series A, to accelerate growth opportunities in México, through their solution: Truconnect, a suite of tools for user authentication via WhatsApp.

“Thanks to Latin America’s WhatsApp penetration which is 80 to 90 percent of the population (550 million people), by making possible the integration of Truora’s authentication products into WhatsApp, the company is opening a potential addressable market in Latin America totaling US$3.5 billion,” said Bilbao, after the Serie A announcement.

With the integration of ZapSign into Truora's solution set in countries like Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Brazil, both companies are making electronic signatures available with the best possible usability.

“The electronic signature market in Brazil is fragmented among three or four major players, including ourselves. In Latin America we have one major player that only focuses on corporate clients and the rest of the market is at its mercy”, added Santos (COO).

With ZapSign, Truora’s goal is to be the largest electronic signature company in Latin America within five years.

About Truora

Truora is a technology company that builds authentication and communication tools for Latin America. Customers include startups, marketplaces, fintechs, banks, which utilize Truora’s products to reduce risk and validate their relationships with users, clients, employees, and suppliers. Truora’s core products are Digital Identity, Truoconnect and Truchecks. The company’s mission is to simplify and automate user interactions for enterprise customers.

Truora’s Truconnect connects their authentication tools in WhatsApp, increasing user response rates and providing a better experience. It allows businesses to streamline user acquisition, reduce onboarding dropoff, provide 360 customer support, and sell their services, all with minimum tech requirements.

Founded in 2018, Truora operates in 9 countries throughout Latin America, with offices in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and San Francisco. The company is led by co-founders with Silicon Valley experience and is backed by Accel, Propel, Kaszek, YC, and leading entrepreneurs from companies such as Jeeves, Clara, Frubana, and Platzi.

About ZapSign

Zapsign is a Brazilian startup founded in 2020 by Renato Haidamous (CEO) and Getúlio Santos (COO) in the state of Belo Horizonte. Their start product is Electronic Signature via WhatsApp, which has generated, in just two years of operations, over 250,000 users in Brazil.